


Night Bus

by tharsis



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Breakup, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-05 11:42:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14043525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tharsis/pseuds/tharsis
Summary: It's getting clearer every mile she rides, Marinette is missing Chat Noir.





	Night Bus

 

 _I’m on the night bus_  
_I'm thinking about us_  
_The streetlights go fleeting by_  
_The man sat next to me_  
_Is texting somebody_  
_I wonder what that feels like_  
_Maybe I'm reckless_  
_But I just can't shake this_  
_It follows me home at night, at night_  
_It's getting clearer every mile we ride_

 

».l.«

 22-year-old Marinette’s dimly lit reflection stares back at her on the bus ride home. Her breath fogs over her image, dazed and complacent, for a fleeting moment before disappearing.

The defeat of Hawkmoth two years ago left Marinette with more time to herself, more time to ponder her life on her nightly bus ride home. In the window, the reflection of the man sitting next to her smiles as his fingers patter away on his phone, probably texting a loved one. A pair of teenagers two rows ahead are brushing shoulders, actively failing at sneaking glances at one other, smiling and blushing each time they catch the other. The world outside the window passes by and she wonders, when did she start feeling so empty?

Empty is the wrong way to put it, she realizes. Her daily life is fulfilling and joyful. Since defeating Hawkmoth two years ago, Marinette has found herself just as busy as she had been before, if not more so. She goes to university, works part-time at a boutique while doing commissions on the side, patrols occasionally with Chat Noir, and, of course, spends the majority of her free time with her friends and now boyfriend, Adrien, whom she was currently on her way home to. So why does it feel like there’s something missing?

Something missing. Yes, that’s a better phrase, she concludes.

Her life had grown in unexpected ways. Hawkmoth turned out to be Gabriel Agreste, surprising everyone and completely shocking Adrien and Marinette had run to console her friend. She knew it wasn’t her fault, but part of her felt guilty for being half of the team responsible for revealing the villain’s identity to the world. Knowing how much his father had meant to Adrien (although the affection he held for the man had swiftly dulled over time), she made sure to be there for him in every way she could, with less intention on gaining his romantic attention and more on being a friend he could lean on.

Somewhere in the midst of supporting him, the lines between friendship and something more blurred as she became a permanent fixture in his life, someone he loved and needed, as he expressed when he asked her out. Just as she had always hoped, right as she had begun to stop hoping.

She spots the spires of Notre Dame in the window and thinks she catches the vague shadow of a figure on the rooftop. She blinks and he’s gone. It’s just her imagination. Disappointment brings forth thoughts that once lingered distantly in the back of her mind, and they come together to a startling revelation

As her relationship with Adrien progressed, it seemed her friendship with Chat thawed. Over the past two years, although they were better friends than ever, a certain distance had been put between them. Chat’s enthusiastic and witty flirtations slowly became few and far between before stopping all together. When they would sit together, the little to no space he had once left between them grew until she couldn’t feel their shoulders brush even if she tried to lean into him. The feeling of her head resting in the nook of his neck, the feeling of his cat ears between her gloved fingers, the vibration of his chest as he tried (and failed) to hold back from purring, the feeling of his lips as they chastely grazed her gloved knuckles—since when had these feelings become a distant memory? How long had she been missing this? Missing him—no, he hadn’t gone anywhere—missing how they used to be, missing his endearments.

_My lady._

Her heart lurches as she realizes he hadn't called her his lady in months.

Why did she use to push him away? Oh yeah. Because of Adrien, the love of her life.

She should have at least given the cat a chance.

Maybe she still can. She shakes her head, as if she could shake the thought out of her head.

She belatedly wonders what life would be like if it were him and not Adrien she was going home to. She tries to regret the thought, but the what-if’s and what-could-be’s are already filling her mind. A blurred, unmasked face saunters into her cogitation, but she can clearly see his smile and the way his eyes light up as she comes home and greets him with a bag of his favorite treats from her parents’ bakery. He wraps her in his arms and greets her with a _‘welcome home, my lady’._ She giggles and pushes him back by the nose like she’s done a thousand times before as he tries to sneak a peak in the bag. _'Dinner first, chaton’._

She sees his smirk as she scoffs at a pun he makes while telling each other about their day. His whole-hearted laughter when she unexpectedly throws a pun back at him as they eat dinner together. Her daydreams take her to an all-too familiar scene where she works on designs while he sits with her in quiet company, reading a book and pausing every so often to watch her work or to recount a scene he enjoyed, only now it’s in their own home and not Marinette’s childhood bedroom.

She imagines not lying about a night class once a week, instead sneaking out their bedroom window together to dash across the rooftops of Paris as Ladybug and Chat Noir.

The longing hits her like a freight train, overpowering any guilt or misgivings she could have due to her feelings for Adrien. She wonders how long this had been building, these dormant feelings for her quirky cat boy that had just erupted, burning away the last of her wariness. She loves Adrien, but in this moment her longing for Chat Noir overpowers it, and she allows herself to admit for the first time that she also loves her leather-clad partner in heroism, and she has for a long time.

This is reckless of her—maybe a little of that cat had rubbed off on her.

She had been there for Adrien through it all, but she and Chat—they had be there for each other, _together_ , through it all.

And suddenly, she knows she’s on her way home to Adrien for the last time.

».l.«

  
  
_Suddenly I know_  
_That I'm on my way home_  
_To you for the last time_  
_It's not what you wanted_  
_But I know you got this_  
_And you're gonna be fine_  
_Oh, I've just been watching_  
_The world as it's turning_  
_And that's what it feels like_  
_Suddenly I know_  
_That I'm on my way home_  
_To you for the last time_

**Author's Note:**

> I thought of this while driving home listening to the song Night Bus by Gabrielle Aplin. It was originally intended to be a oneshot but as I went my writing got away from me and its escalted into whats looking like a 10k fic, so Ive decided to post it in 3 parts. I hope you all enjoy! Thank you for reading~
> 
> Also, if you want to talk ML or updates / ml memes Im really active on twitter, so feel free to follow @moesleeves
> 
> AND A GIANT SHOUTOUT TO @aruchama who beta’d this for me, I couldnt have done this without her (maybe I could have but it would probably suck a lot)


End file.
